Life with Pets is full of joys and sometime sorrow. Pets' unconditional love and companionship are source of joys to their owners. Pets who suffer from advanced age, degenerative disease, illness, incontinence, and the like, and who do not have complete control of their waste discharges, (such as liquid waste (e.g., urine and blood) and solid waste), are source of distress and inconvenient to their owners.
Lake of control of the waste discharges in pets also occurs in very young pets (e.g., puppies) during their training period; female animals (e.g., bitches) on heat; pets owned by persons residing in apartments who cannot immediately access out door areas; pets left unattended for extended period in the homes and the like; and pets in animal hospital before and after particular surgery or medical treatment.
Pets' waste discharges in the home, automobile, and the like, are source of annoyance and inconvenience to the owners. To overcome this problem, various spraying and cleaning products are proposed to mitigate pets' waste discharges. These products are not altogether satisfactory.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,105, entitled, “Securely fitting pet diaper”, to McKnight, issued on Nov. 7, 2000, proposes a diaper garment for a household pet for absorbing and containing the waste discharges from the pet, the garment comprises a top potion adapted to engage a portion of the back of the pet and extending to about the tail area; and a bottom portion, attached to or integrally formed with the top portion, adapted to engage the rear end of the pet from about the tail area and extending to a portion of the pet's underside.
The garment further comprises side portions adapted to engage the flank areas of the pet and extending at least between respective flank edge areas of the top and bottom portions, the side portions comprised of elasticized material. The garment comprises a tail opening at or about the juncture of the top and bottom portions, the tail opening defined at least in part by circumferentially disposed elastic material. The garment comprises leg openings for the rear legs of the pet, the leg openings defined at least in part by circumferentially disposed elastic material. In addition, the garment comprises a liquid-absorbing material attached to or disposed in at least a portion of the pet facing surface of the bottom portion. It also comprises suspenders having at least a first end attached to a forward area of the top portion and at least a second end attached to a forward area of the bottom portion and adapted to engage the shoulder areas of the pet.
The McKnight's garment comprises multiple components: top portion; bottom portion, side portions, suspenders, and a belt that may result in a high cost manufacture of the garment for the pet. Further, because of the suspenders, the garment may lack comfort for the pet wearer and it may be difficult to put on the pet. The liquid-absorbing material attached to the bottom portion is relatively small and may not be sufficient to absorbing the liquid waste and containing the solid waste from the animal.
Other prior arts propose wide varieties of elaborate garments and articles for pets that are intended to address the waste discharges' problem. These elaborate garments and articles have shortcomings with respect to cost of manufacture; lack of comfort for the pet wearer; difficulty in putting the garment or the article on the pet; and inability to effectively absorb liquid waste and contain solid waste from the pet.
Pets' owners need a garment or an article that would be easy to put on the pet; would absorb the waste discharges from the pet; and would be easily disposed of in a sanitary way.
Consequently, there is a need in the industry to provide disposable sanitary garments for pets, (such as dogs, cats, and particularly those who do not have complete control of their waste discharges), that are convenient and effective for both the pet owner and the animal.